New to Dm-3200

[Jordan]

Hi guys and girls.
First of all thank you for letting my join your fantastic forum, Powerloads of great information.

I've just purchased a used Tascam dm 3200 to use in my mix down / listening room

I used to have a behringer x32 I would gig with but on the second gig (brand new desk the mpu failed) I felt as If I couldn't trust it and sold it.

Then I brought a QSC touch mix, does all I need for live and is very portable but I like to mix my recordings down when I get home.
I can do this with very good results with my touch mix but I missed having faders and this is how my Tascam story starts

First of all I hope *fingers crossed I paid the right money for the desk (I think I did) I paid $1400 AUD for the desk and interstate freight added $300 so a total investment of $1700 aud

Mint condition desk with firewire mk2 card , analogue expansion card. meter bridge and you guessed it 4 lines on the lcd. I've been quoted $390 aud for a lcd from Tascam

I've been reading through a lot of good information on this page lcd replacement vga out... but for now I think I'll just put up with it

This is what I'm intending to do.
Use the desk as my I/O of my pc
Use the desk as a control surface
Plug in my monitors
Plug in my headphones
Eventually set up rear speakers so I can transfer my quadraphonic vinyl and track tapes to the pc and be able to play them back
System audio playback for general listening when not using my daw

Connect my sub on a separate group knob or fader as I don't like to mix with it but for general listening I use it
I also constantly like to adjust the level (preferably post master fader so I can adjust the sub as needed but will also follow the master)

I own Nuendo and my silly pc has updated to windows 10 :|

So I guess I'm confused about in and out of the box mixing in the case also.
With my x32 I'd mix on the desk and just record stereo back in to the pc in a stereo track
Or would it be better to mix in the box and just use the Tascam as a remote, this seems a bit wasteful of the meter bridge and what not
I'm thinking this is where midi comes in
Thanks for reading my thoughts cheers from Australia
Jordan

 

[Gerk]

You did well on the desk hardware for sure, you got a lot of options for your $$.

In terms of mixing in the box or not ... that's a very personal choice. I use my 3200 in a very similar fashion and I (mostly) mix in the box and just use it for stem outputs, but that changes depending on what I'm doing and what my clients' needs are at the time.

I'm not sure what you will find for options in terms of the way you want to run your sub (I'm not sure if you can insert it post fader like that on the master or not). Don't feel bad about using the desk as "just" a midi controller, as it's a very good one! It's more capable than a lot of other controllers I've used in fact. I'm super super happy using mine exactly like that, and especially love the fact that there's a dedicated remote layer on the desk itself. That was a big reason for me to upgrade from my former desk (DM-24).

Make sure you download the latest beta drivers from the sticked thread in this forum (don't download them from the post, look for the web page login and download them from there). Other than that it sounds like you're good to go!

Welcome to the forum! It's not super busy around here, but there are some people kicking around.

 

[Jordan]

Thanks for the reply Gerk Thanks for the info Cheers!

 

[Bob Jonezon]

I've had my DM-4800 for about 6 months now, and have landed on a workflow where I use it more like you would a traditional analog console.

All busses are routed to inputs in the DAW via FireWire, and the DAW returns are spread across the channels of the DMs. There's even a cool option to quickly switch the channel input from Mic / Line to DAW Return.

I use the Auxes as headphone cue sends during tracking and FX sends during mix.

I've found using the EQs and Compressors on the channels on the DM to be much more streamlined than doing so in the box.

I do have the remote layer and transport set up to control and sync with the DAW (Cubase).

I print the stereo Mix back to the DAW, or to 1/4" tape.

The routing takes a bit to wrap your head around, but once you do it's incredible. I actually used an x32 for the first time the other day, and was disappointed by how inflexible the routing was compared to the DM.

So in my config, I have all the workflow advantages of working on a physical console, but with easy total recall, and never leaving the digital domain.

I couldn't be happier with this board.

 

[Jordan]

Thanks Bob, the courier has dicked me around big time the desk was supposed to be delivered Monday Tuesday at the latest but I should be right to pick it up tomorrow. Thank you also for all the great info it was just what I was looking for Cheers!

 

[Bob Jonezon]

Enjoy. It's got a pretty steep learning curve, but once you get an understanding of the routing (which is insanely flexible), and start learning the lay of the land on the console, it becomes a breeze to work on.

Best wishes on your endeavor, and don't hesitate to reach out if you find yourself stumped, or are looking for perspective!

 

[Gerk]

Yes indeed, the routing is a treat once you figure out it's logic. Very rarely do I run up against a method of patching/routing that I dream up that I can't (easily) do.

 

[Jordan]

Thanks guys, My mixer turned up Friday lucky I insured the freight, it was supposed to go on sensitive freight (I paid for that) turns out it didn't and they dropped it! thankfully its still all working but one of the top feet on the back has dented in a little (the expansion card side) seems to be all cosmetic at this stage.

Finally got to spend a few hours with it and worked out some basic routing got some multi track audio out of nuendo and set up some remote features including the midi timecode , remote layer faders and remote eq's and transport controls are working however I have not yet worked out the machine control section.

I'm starting to realize what you guys are saying with how many options this desk has!
Appreciate all of your replies very helpful, couldn't have got it all going with out this fourm especially the beta drivers (running windows 10) and after pulling my hair out and reformatting and having a nightmare of a time getting the computer to go again! its working well

Thanks again

 

[Arjan P]

Congrats on your DM! Not good that you received it damaged though, I'd somehow get that resolved somehow..

 

[Gravity Jim]

Tell the shipper they dented it and that screwed up the LCD. You want 600AUD.